SPECIAL INTEREST DAY

BURWELL HALL, WITNEY, OX28 5NP

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Poised between Europe and Africa, Sicily has been both a gateway and a crossroads attracting a long line of colonisers. This Study Day looks at Sicily through the ancient and medieval periods: the Greek temples; the beautifully preserved Roman Villa Casala and the monuments from the Arab-Norman period when Palermo was the most active centre in Europe.

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10.00 Lecture 1 - explores the development away from the gold leaf backgrounds of devotional images to show landscape, often seen through a window, as an addition to the main subject of the image.

11.00 Coffee/Tea

11.30 Lecture 2 – considers the Dutch painters who were the Masters of landscape painting, painted for their merchant clients who wanted small images for their new canal-side homes.

12.30 – 2pm Lunch

2.00 – 3.00 Lecture 3 - we see how the focus on the particular was perfected in the nineteenth century by John Constable and his contemporaries, following in the Romantic tradition.

COST:  members £35 per person, non-members £40 per person

From the 15th to the 21st centuries, artists as varied as Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Goya, William Blake, Picasso, Grayson Perry, Ai Weiwei and many more have created powerful, exciting, moving and sometimes, disturbing works of art dealing with topics as varied as social unrest and poverty, feminism and gender politics, race, prejudice and multi-culturalism, the environment, war and propaganda, and the cult of personality. Val will take us through some of these events and how artists have reflected their time. 

Click here for a booking form:

https://www.taswox.org.uk/DocumentStore/SID%2027%20Feb%202024.pdf

Look forward to seeing you at Burwell Hall on Tues 27 February!

A writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide, Gavin lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. His first book, A Home for All Seasons, was published in June 2022.

For our Special Interest Day, Gavin expertly looked at three nations – the Czech lands, Slovenia and Hungary through their capital cities (Budapest, Prague and Ljubljana) as each tried to express their national identities, separate from the overarching control of the Habsburg Empire, through art, music and literature. Over time, they produced the magnificent cities we know today.

We were delighted to welcome so many of you to our first Special Interest Day of this year's programme as it allows more time to study a subject in depth than our regular programme of an hour's lecture. 

Thanks to our team for an excellent lunch and refreshments which were much appreciated.

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Chloë is a specialist in Latin American art and culture.  She studied Maya culture in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and leads cultural tours to Mexico. The day promises to be alive with the colour and excitement of Mayan culture!

The Application form to join this day of talks with lunch is on line and can be found by pressing here.

British artists have always been fascinated by the maritime world, but in the age of Turner attention shifted to the experience of sailors and travellers. At first, emphasis was on disaster but soon more nuanced depictions of ocean travel appeared. The 20thC brought opportunities for artists to portray life from battleships to fishing trawlers. Drama and serenity; tragedy and laughter and featuring a star-studded cast of artists, this Special Interest Day will bring to life a fascinating story.

 An appliction form is on line just press here

For application form click here

This will start at 10.00 in the Corn Exchange and include a light lunch. Application form can be downloaded here.

Brian is a Senior Teaching Fellow at University College London, where he has lectured since 1997, and a member of the Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography. 

As an artistic discipline, photography is most often compared to painting: Brian believes that photography can equal, and sometimes exceed, painting in the classic genres.

Session 1  10.00 - 11.00

Introduction to photography as an artistic discipline, analysing the work of outstanding photographers, examining portraits, landscape and narrative.

Coffee break 11.00 - 11.30

Session 2  11.30 - 12.30

Continues the theme of examining painting genres with the human condition and still life.

Brian will also look at the issues of black and white photography v colour and the impact of digital photography.

Lunch 12.30 - 1.30

Session 3 1.30 - 2.30

Examines some of the vivid images of photography in modern times and considers what makes these images so special and resonate with the depth of human experience..

Monday 1st February and Tuesday 2nd February 2021

Due to Covid 19 Pandemic Brought to you Virtually by ZOOM with webinar

        20th Century Theatre: 1900 to Now

These talks examine how the theatre responded to the extraordinary upheavals of the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, the Space Race and the Information Revolution and considers how, throughout this age of extremes, the show still went on and continued reflecting our story right up to the present day.

PROGRAMME

 February 1st  - Lecture 2.30 – 3.30 pm

February 2nd  - Lecture 10.30 – 11.30am: Lunch break: Lecture 2.30 – 3.30pm

COST £20 per person watching virtually

Press here for an application form for these talks 

This Study  will in fact be given on line. It will now be a Two Day event using ZOOM to be enjoyed at Home or where ever you happen to be.

It will begin on Tuesday 27th Oct at 10.30am till 12.00 and then a lunch break and starting again at 2.00 till 3.30

Then the same times on Wed 28th Oct.

for an application form please click here

Francisco de Goya’s life spanned the reign of 4 Bourbon monarchs, during which there was considerable social and political upheaval, including the Peninsular Wars. His early work was designs for the Royal Tapestry Works in Madrid but by the 1790’s his work included portrait painting, political satire, commentaries and experimental works. The study day will look at his early designs for the Santa Barbara Tapestry Factory in Madrid, his portraits of the Madrid elite and Royal Family and finally at his ‘political’ paintings and late work from his exile in Bordeaux.  

Flyer and Application form, which is on TASWOX Website press here.

Tchaikovsky was one of the first people to perceive Chekhov’s genius and the admiration for each other was mutual. Despite Chekhov’s shyness the two became friends, aware they were kindred spirits. This study day will discuss the elegiac and lyrical quality of their work, along with that of Isaak Levitan, who was Russia’s greatest landscape painter, and Chekhov’s best friend. We will examine their lives and career in the context of late nineteenth-century Russian culture. Together their music, writing and painting will provide a compelling and moving evocation of the autumnal atmosphere of late Imperial Russia.

For a Booking form press here

In the morning we look at the Victorian Revolution in transport and travel and how this encouraged women travellers from Queen Victoria in the Scottish Highlands to Mary Kingsley in West Africa.

In the afternoon we concentrate on Marianne North and her paintings and Isabella Bird and her writings about Hawaii and the American West.

For an application form press here